C.E.Monds Photography

The Birth of Esoteric Lore

2010-05-20T18:35:00.003-04:00

Esoteric Lore is a collective of women artists that focuses on telling the significant stories of black women by black women. Our purpose is to empower women by way of giving a realistic view into the brilliant spectrums of our lives. Esoteric Lore is storytelling, not in the perspective of revisionist histories, but in our own words. Our humble beginnings first opened to the public in late March at Spelman College in conjunction with the 10 Annual Toni Cade Conference: Making Evolution Irresistible. Please join us as we say farewell to the space that housed our first exhibition, and move forward to open new doors.

Esoteric Lore is a movement that is rooted in counteracting the stereotypical images of black womanhood. As artists, the women of this collective feel the responsibility to harness the power inherent in visual mediums and use it for the elevation of the human experience. Stories that have been silenced and marginalized still hold significant power and are celebrated through the art of visual storytelling. As an evolving movement,Esoteric Lore is progressively seeking opportunities to reach out and ignite innovation.

Please come and grace us with your presence and add to the experience of Esoteric Lore at our closing reception.

Esoteric Lore: Visual Storytelling is an ever-growing and traveling exhibition. With each new venue, there may lie a new story to tell and we encourage you to share in all of our upcoming events!

Welcome to 2010! New Year, New Website!!

2010-01-03T16:55:00.010-05:00

First off, I'd like to wish everyone continued happiness, love, success, and productivity! And possibly a discovery of those things if you feel they were running low in 2009.

I must say that these last months (being the later half of the year) have been quite a ride. A bumpy and rather difficult one to push through. However, I've made continued attempts to keep things on track, and in that was involved into my 1st 2 shows in the last 3 months of '09, one in Atlantic Station put on by SCAD students, faculty, and alumni in conjunction with ACP (Atlanta Celebrates Photography) that I mentioned in my last posting! The other can be seen in SCAD-Atlanta, where it is part of an annual display of selected works. Thank you to the powers that be! Times are still hard, as I'm sure they are with many people right now, but a certain level of drive and dedication must remain to achieve any positive outcome....So I'll keep my hopes and my efforts up.

On to the updates!
I've finally began getting into a little bit more commercial work. In my own style, of course! Being the ex-fashion major, music enthusiast, foodie, and bit of naturalist that I am....most of these photographs focused on, or included beauty products, jewelry, musical instruments, edibles, and organic elements that reflect my affinities. Here's a tiny sample:

I've also finally built my website! It went live recently. :D So visit my website and take a look around for more!

September was a lonely month...

2009-10-28T07:11:00.005-04:00

Let's not make October the same.
A quick update, I've officially had my first show!! (Solo show still waiting to happen) October 17th was the day of the Scad Juried Photography Exhibition. I got 2 pieces accepted in, prepared for about 2 weeks on a one night only show in Atlantic Station, talked it up as much as possible and drove a good number of people out that night. Lovely night full of great photographs, installations, and video by scad students, faculty, and alumni. And of course there was good food and interested viewers. :)
More info on that & a vid over at: http://artrelish.com/wpmu/blog/2009/10/20/scad-juried-photography-exhibition-more-than-a-student-show/

With that being said, I admit my fascination with food. The shrimp and hummus, etc from the show were wonderful, but just as well as I'm a foodie for taste, I'm a foodie for color and presentation. Not quite the food photographer yet, but here are a few casual stabs at it.

J*Davey, Baby!!

2009-08-04T22:01:00.020-04:00

So, to break away from the portraits and words for a minute, let's go into music...:)
This post is long overdue.
With that being said, here are a few photos from the J*Davey show at Sugarhill in Atlanta (Spring '09)
Opening Acts were:
Alien (Drummer)
Doll Daze (Rockin out with the fly boots and face masks)
and the lovely...Brittany Bosco

Short Janelle Monae cameo. Love her!!

And a few of the friends... The wonderful Miss Corinne Stevie from Art Nouveau on the left.

And of course... Jack Davey!

Contradictions arise to build connections...

2009-06-11T18:22:00.007-04:00

And because of this, it is necessary to get lost deep within each passing thought. After they've been brought back to the surface, we can begin to fill in the gaps and see the common factors that can meld them together.
Time is key.

I turn left...

2009-05-26T21:13:00.001-04:00

There can be no evolution of self without the examination of self.
Delve, examine, stray, fall.
Don't push the panic button.

Don't Press The Panic Button

2009-04-09T04:56:00.005-04:00

This is a piece of writing I finished a few months back, while at home and on break. This piece, alone, served as the base for the mood and text of my self-fulfillment series of self-portraits.

I've been living in a place unlike yours
Where time is slow and we all move in a sluggish rhythm.
Alice In Wonderland comes to mind.
But I'm the sober one...
Even though the ceiling is pliable as it caves in and out
and blinks turn birds back to the plants they were,
And you move towards me in slow-motion, tilts and swings
Even though my head spins just before seeing the molecules in the air
and reaching too short for the door as it moves further away,
and perspectives shift and plume.
and I outstretch my arms,
I am the sober one.
Nothing seems real anymore
Aside from feeling.

I wonder if I've been paying too much attention to my dreams.
Because they've begun to seep into my daily realities...
So, maybe intentions of manifestations might work.
Or maybe adequate rest is in order...
So that I may dream in real-time to see the outside world.

I'm not sure which is more pleasant now, each has become so involved.
I see lifeless beings, walking in a daze.
Caught up in routine
and tradition
and the hustle.
The fight...
And all things unreal.
When some tangible things are nothing more than concept,
How can we begin to see a clear picture?
When state of mind is considered false,
How can we learn through the eyes of the other?

I wonder if my perceptions have been skewed this far,
what will a sentence do?
or a constant state of hypnosis...tuned in to the channel of you.
What could be reality if we all deep sleep to find hidden truths.

I've been shaken to the state of open dreams.
You could call it an awakening if U please,
But I still find myself censoring my expressions
in hopes a rift will lift you along for the ride
so we can drift and combine
with concrete evidence of...
Just one.

Dream in real-time...

2009-03-30T06:13:00.000-04:00

With the future in my pocket, tightly gripped like a 9...

2009-03-25T08:30:00.000-04:00

This is some work from Winter quarter 09. I began this coming right out of shooting faces with tribal paints and other body decorations. I wanted to work with the same elements in a different way.
While jotting down some ideas, the one thing that stuck with me throughout the quarter was the idea of condensing the self down into something tangible and visible. This became my personal definition of self-fulfillment...
The words in the 1st image read "Seep into my daily realities".

On another note, 2 claps for Saul Williams and DNA. It often served as my mood music for the shoots, right along with the rest of Niggy Tardust.

New quarter, new lessons learned!

2009-03-23T02:19:00.000-04:00

Taking studio lighting this quarter, which starts tomorrow. I can't wait to learn it! I've been doing makeshift lighting for a while now, and this should really be good for the direction I'm headed in as of late.

I'll be posting work from the past few months very soon...right along with photos from the J*Davey show at Sugarhill this spring! Hopefully by the end of this week, but we'll see...